The biggest story to emerge about X Factor in 2011 seems to be the story of X Factor itself, and its apparently irreversible slide into oblivion. You may remember that last week Simon Cowell tried to intervene by exploding all over the place. This week he reportedly mooted the possibility of replacing Louis Walsh in next year's judging lineup. Even Sami Brookes is suggesting Walsh should go.

At the risk of permanently alienating everybody who reads this, I'm not sure that's such a good idea. He might seem like a grinning, platitude-spewing gonk parked superfluously on the end of the judging table, but I've got a sneaky feeling Louis Walsh is actually the beating heart of X Factor. Which is why Cowell has apparently already saved Walsh.

Let's be clear, this has nothing to do with Walsh's pedigree in the music industry. Yes, he may have managed Boyzone and Westlife. Yes, he may have had a hand in creating Girls Aloud, JLS and G4. Yes, he talent-spotted Irish Eurovision supremo Johnny Logan 30 years ago. But that means nothing, because X Factor isn't really a show about the music industry. It's entertainment, pure and simple.

Under Louis' wing: Wagner Carrilho on the X Factor. Photograph: McPix Ltd/Rex Features

And nobody is as entertaining as Louis Walsh. It's why he's always given the lame duck category each year. Most normal people would throw their hands up in despair if handed a Jedward or a Wagner, but not Walsh. His motto is: "If life gives you lemons, dress those lemons in a badly-fitting disco catsuit and make them bongo their way through an ill-advised medley of Love Shack and the Ghostbusters soundtrack." Louis may not have won X Factor since the second series, but he always manages to land the most talked-about act of each year. He's done it again this time, for better or worse, with Kitty Brucknell.

It's Walsh's sense of mischief that makes X Factor. Contrast our show with the American version and that much becomes painfully clear. Instead of Louis, US X Factor has LA Reid, a music industry mogul so fixated on competency and product that he instantly drains the fun from any room he steps into. Not even the perpetually befuddled Paula Abdul can counter such a vast grey slab of professionalism. The bombast of UK X Factor, meanwhile, has a cheeky knowingness to it, thanks to Peter Dickson's voiceover and Walsh's innate sense of lunacy.

X Factor needs a court jester. The worst thing it could do is get rid of Louis Walsh. Without his puckish verve for disruption, it'd become a show about technical adequacy and endless piano ballads. It'd become a show about Sophie Habibis, basically, and who'd watch that?

Louis Walsh doesn't just have the X factor, he is the X Factor. Without him, the whole enterprise would crumble into the sea. And surely being constantly enraged by every stupid thing that comes out of his idiot mouth is a small price to pay for the survival of the show.